REVIEW: Being overweight hurts your self-image and lays the foundation for many diseases. The secret of lasting weight loss begins with eating generous amounts of high-fiber foods while limiting animal products and refined foods. Combine this with a brisk, daily walk, and you will easily drop those extra pounds at a healthy rate of one to two pounds a week.
Different Problem, Same Cure
Over and over you’ve heard the same advice: Change your lifestyle to prevent heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, and a host of other life-shortening diseases.
Why do all these problems have the same solution? Because a diet of whole foods, very low in fat, sugar, salt, and cholesterol, is not a gimmick or fad—it’s the diet your body was designed for. It should come as no surprise, then, that the same diet that keeps your arteries clean and reduces the risk of cancer also helps you lose weight—and keep it off for good.
Fats Make Fat
Ounce for ounce the American diet packs a lot of calories. That’s because it’s high in fat. Look at the comparison: a gram of fat contains more than twice the calories of an equal amount of protein or carbohydrate.
Calorie Counting
Which of the following three foods contains the most calories:
#1, #2, #3? Compute, figure out the total calories per food, and fill in the blanks:
Eat More, Weigh Less
If you picked Food #3, you were correct. Although the weight was the same for all three foods, Food #3 carries a higher proportion of that weight as fat. As a result, a serving of Food #3 contains 91 calories while Food #2 carries 81 and Food #1 only 66 calories.
Keep this in mind when you choose your food. You don’t have to eat less to cut calories. In fact, if you choose foods that are high in unrefined complex carbohydrates and low in fat, you can actually eat more than ever and still lose weight. That’s good news for anyone who thinks going hungry is the only way to get thin. To get thin, you have to eat more, but of the right foods!
Your Challenge
When you shop, check the labels to see how much fat, carbohydrate, and protein the foods you buy contain. Choose those that are high in unrefined, fiber-rich complex carbohydrates and low in calorie-dense fats. Remember, if you eat products that carry most of their weight as fat, soon you will be doing the same.
10 Basic Habits for Permanent Weight Control
1. Eat lots of foods “as grown.” These are the unrefined complex carbohydrate foods, high in fiber and nutrients, yet low in calories and price, and devoid of cholesterol.
2. Never skip breakfast. A hot multigrain cereal with fruit is great!
3. Eat three meals a day at regular times.
4. Eat slowly. Take time to enjoy your food.
5. End your main meal with a piece of fruit. Save desserts for special treats.
6. Skip snacks and night munchies (or eat a piece of fruit).
7. Drink plenty of water instead of juice or sodas.
8. Exercise daily (30-60 minutes, or 10,000 steps a day).
9. Allow no harmful substances into your body (alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, drugs)
10. Develop hobbies—music, books, sports, etc.